We know that many people are providing ad hoc support to friends and neighbours. Please continue to do this; it is so important. As a resilience team, what we want to do is provide some formal back-stopping, both to identify people who may fall in to the gaps and to ensure that everyone at increased risk is known and monitored and helped as required.

Many people who may wish to register will not have a computer or smartphone. If that applies to you, please ask someone you trust to do it for you. This person will also record their own details. When we first make contact we will confirm all these details.

If you know someone who may be at increased risk, please contact them to explain this registration scheme and ask if they would like to register. You can then record the details on their behalf. If a stranger offers to do this, if you can please decline and contact someone you trust to do it for you instead.

We will also have some phone numbers you can call to register ASAP.

Next steps

The immediate need is to compile these registers, with appropriate safeguards in place. The initial monitoring will take the form of a daily phone call from one of our volunteers. The security word (password) you use to register will be very important, as our volunteers will use this to confirm that the call is genuine. If you receive a call from a stranger claiming to be from the resilience team, and they do not use the password, please hang up.

On the first call by a volunteer to the resident, they will introduce themselves and quote the agreed password. They will then verify the details on the form. On every subsequent call they will quote the password to validate that they are genuine.

Please note that there is a core team of people who manage the community resilience programme. They will have access to the details you provide. We are very concerned about safeguarding when dealing with vulnerable people and so we will be ensuring that all volunteers are known to at least one of us. We hope you understand the need for this. In case someone is not known, we will contact you ASAP to get a few more details. We will be asking volunteers if they can participate in the monitoring by phone call initially, but many will also be helping with other activities.

We will advise volunteers of the protocols for providing practical assistance (shopping etc.) shortly.